Moving from http to https

I finally switched from http to https on my blog for better security. I read that Google will soon lower the ranking of the sites with http due to security concerns. Mr. FAF helped me with this project, so I didn’t incur a cost for this move.

The biggest downside to the switch is that I lost all of the media shares. Some of my posts previously had more than 300 shares on Pinterest. But after changing to https, I started at 0 share for all of my posts. I looked into how to recover the shares, but it didn’t seem easy.

If you are interested in moving to https, you can contact our fellow blogger Chris at Debt Free Geek. Chris works as a cybersecurity director at his day job, so I believe you will be in good hands.

Marketing strategies

1. Comment on other blogs

I continued to comment on some of my favorite blogs in September. I would love to follow more blogs, but time is sometimes my biggest enemy.

2. Respond to comments on my blog

I think it’s important for me to interact with my readers to let them know that I care about what they have to say, and I really do.

I might not be able to respond to all feedback, but I read every single comment that I get. It makes me really happy to know many of you take the time to give me such positive feedback as well as constructive criticisms.

In September, I made new Pinterest images for my most popular posts. If you want to check out what posts have drawn the most traffic to your site, you can check Google Analytics for the stats: Acquisition -> Social -> Network Referrals -> Pinterest. You can also check the stats for your other social media channels such as Twitter and Instagram.

One of my biggest regrets is not installing Google Analytics from day 1. You can definitely do what feels right to you. But it’s also helpful to let data lead the way and help you shape your marketing strategy. I installed the Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights plugin on my WordPress to connect it with Google Analytics.

If you check out my Pinterest profile, you will see how my design has progressed over time. I have read a lot about the importance of branding and having a Pinterest template that can signal to others that it’s your brand.

As much as I want to stick with my previous designs, I also felt the need to improve them based on what I observe from the more popular pins. When you are repinning from other bloggers, you might want to pay more attention to the images that catch your attention instantaneously and make you want to save them. You can then try to recreate and improve upon those images to create your own design.

I always ask myself “What is it about this pin that makes it so popular and/or prettier than the other ones I’ve seen on Pinterest?” I’m still trying to figure out what design and what type of title would catch the most attention in the crowded Pinterest space.

Pinterest is the social media platform that has been the most time-consuming to me. However, I want to stick with it and dedicate even more resources to Pinterest since I know the potential it has to help me draw traffic to my site.

When it comes to Pinterest, I can either spend a ton of time on it or hire an expert who can hopeful do the legwork for me. Given my limited budget for blogging, I’ve opted to do the work myself while consulting other fellow bloggers such as Lily, Corey, and JT.

I get free stock photos from Pixabay and make the images on Canva. I use Tailwind to schedule all of my pins.

I currently have about 1,200 followers on Twitter. Starting in mid-September, I got more active in following more personal finance users on this platform. My hope is that they will follow me back and expand my follower base.

However, after following 1,000 more people and only getting fewer than 200 followers, I slowed down to reassess my strategy.

What bothered me about mass-following other people was that my new feeds started to show content that was not relevant to personal finance. It got so irrelevant to the point where I dreaded getting on Twitter since I didn’t want to see what would appear on my new feeds.

I eventually decided to narrow down my following list to under 1,000 people. I was pleased to see the content of my fellow PF bloggers again. It made it easier for me to interact with them and share their content.

I blog anonymously and don’t want to use my personal profile to join personal finance groups on Facebook. Yet, eager to expand my presence on this channel, I set up a pen name profile called “Frugal Faf.” I tried “Frugal Asian,” but Facebook wouldn’t let my registration go through.

I made the mistake of adding too many random people in a short period of time (2 days) with the hope that they would add me back. Facebook seemed to have detected that activity and put my account on hold for review. I had to upload a photo of myself for their review before having the account reactivated.

I continue to work with Lily at The Frugal Gene and Tim at Tub of Cash to brainstorm ideas about blogging and got to pick their brains about Pinterest.

Tim has a massive following on this platform (135,000 followers). I usually think of him as an Instagram master although he might be too modest to agree with me.

I went on a liking and commenting spree at one point but didn’t get a lot of traffic drawn to my site. Now I just like and comment at a normal rate if I see something I like. I downloaded Gramblr onto my computer to upload my Pinterest images onto Instagram.

To me, it’s like killing two birds with one stone: making one image for two social media platforms. I should put more pictures of my daily life. But since I blog anonymously and don’t really like taking pictures, it’s been a bit of a challenge.

Challenge – The Tailwind debacle

I usually have about 4,000 scheduled pins in my Tailwind account. However, one day, I decided to schedule 108 of my pins to almost 100 group boards to increase my Pinterest presence. As usual, I tried to shuffle all the pins to avoid repetition and went to bed.

When I checked my Pinterest pins the next day, I was in shock to see a series of the same pins on my profile. Tailwind failed to shuffle my 11,000 pins because there were simply too many. The app just couldn’t handle it.

I was terrified. What if people unfollowed me? What if I got kicked out of my top boards for spamming? What if Pinterest lowered the ranking and visibility of my pins because they thought I was spamming?

Those questions ran amok in my mind and stirred up such a whirlwind of emotions that I had to spend almost two hours trying to figure out how to solve that problem by myself in vain. I called Tailwind customer service, but no one picked up.

Luckily, I eventually got a hold of an agent. She agreed with me that 11,000 were too many scheduled pins. I learned that lesson the hard way. I’d try to stay within the 5,000 scheduled pin limit from now on.

Conclusion

Overall, I was pleased with my traffic progress in September. There is no telling what will happen in the blogging world. My pageviews could plummet the next month. I might not be able to make a good income from my blog. But worrying won’t solve any problems.

At the moment, I just want to share my stories and focus on growing my blog. And I’m just simply glad that more readers are joining our family in our frugal adventures. It’s been a pleasure in and of itself.

Another great month in the books! Your Pinterest stat made me do a double-take haha

My September traffic was up thanks to a popular post about being a DINK family 🙂 Still not getting the traffic you are but you are an inspiration to me to keep pushing myself! I think I need to get on the Pinterest bandwagon before it’s too late…

As usual, you are rocking!! Those are some awesome numbers! I am going to have to study your Pinterest part, bc ours is going up and down… We have no consistency.
It’s exciting to see your numbers grow, especially since I know how much work goes into making that happen.
Awesome month!!

Congrats for another great month of growth. You are my inspiration for being able to add 25-30 hours per week on top of your 9-5 job and family. I would probably get divorced if I spend this much time on my blog rather than my family.

For Twitter, to manage my feeds I created a list and only check the feeds in that list. This list only includes the personal financial related follows. Try it.

Congratulations, your numbers are so impressive! I don’t know how you manage to do it all with a full time job and a baby. Now that I have been blogging for a month, I can appreciate all the work you do. Keep it up and thanks for sharing your info

Congrats on 6 months in a row of continuous success! You’re doing amazing and I’m learning so much from your experience. There’s a lot of takeaways for me with your Pinterest strategy and consistent publishing. I have currently been working on upgrading my Pinterest images. I have had a small amount of success, but I’m still struggling to select images that I like versus images that are most shareable. Thanks for the advice! Keep it up!

Inspiring, congrats on your continued success! This really convinces me of the value of Pinterest; I’m going to put more time and effort into teaching myself how to use it. I’ve been reluctant because it did not seem to me that a visual platform would really vibe with PF blogs, but there’s no arguing with results.

Wow, you’re killing it. The growth is amazing for just 6 months. Great job! You’re doing really well with Pinterest. Maybe I’ll need to pick your brain at some point.
Also, you really should consider going to FinCon at some point. You’ll learn a ton and meet a bunch of friends. Keep at it.

I have been daydreaming about FinCon for months but haven’t been able to justify the costs since my blog is currently in the red >_< But I will definitely consider it next year and would love to see you at the conference if you go! ^.^

You’re doing great Ms FAF! That’s a lot of time on top of your full time job! Hopefully your hard work will pay off soon and you can do this instead of your regular day job. I actually enjoy creating the images on Pinterest but it’s so time consuming. I also get disappointed when people don’t follow back on Twitter but I’m cognizant of not wanting so much clutter on my feed that I would miss the tweets of bloggers I want to see.

Keep it up Ms. FAF!! Your numbers are impressive and love all the hard work you do for your blog. You should get to 30K this month. We are all witnessing your journey and glad to be part of it. Congrats on 6th months for your blog!!

I found you through reddit and i have visited your website a few times now :)..i was checking your pinterest and noticed you are part of many group boards, do you have any advice on how you got accepted to so many groups? i will appreciate it. Btw great progress, i will definitely follow you for your future reports, they are super inspiring 🙂 !

Wow, I would say this has to one of the more detailed and impressive blog report I have ever read! And what’s is so cool is, new bloggers who want to increase their traffic are going to find this post very valuable. Because you really gave good suggestions and steps on how to do it. Keep it up, it’s really impressive stuff after just 6 months!